DATE: Thursday, July 24, 1997               TAG: 9707240401

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   98 lines

JUDGE ORDERS ONE TRIAL FOR 2 TEENS IN STUDENT'S DEATH

A Circuit Court judge on Wednesday ordered a single trial for two of the three teenagers charged with the January murder of Kellam High School student Timothy M. Wheaton.

The judge's decision was prompted by a one-word change in a state law governing the prosecution of co-defendants, which took effect on July 1.

The change in the statute's wording was small but significant, signalling a ``major legal culture shift,'' according to both Prosecutor Albert Alberi and Circuit Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr.

During the Wednesday hearing, Hanson joined the cases of 19-year-old James W. Waters Jr. and 17-year-old Monica Oliver, who are charged with the drive-by shooting of Wheaton, a soccer star at Kellam High School.

Two other teen-agers, Richard Ethan Hollingsworth and Stephanie Grace Wall, also were arrested and charged in the shooting.

Hanson said his decision to give the two defendants a single trial had been directed by the get-tough-on-crime 1997 General Assembly.

``The overwhelming consideration is the mandate that the legislature has given us,'' Hanson said Wednesday at the conclusion of the hearing. ``If you want to call it a major legal culture shift, that is a good analysis of it.''

Alberi also used those words to describe what the General Assembly legislators did when they changed the statute.

The altered statute means that no longer will defendants in state courts have an undisputed right to be tried separately. Alberi said that it would...streamline the legal process, mainly by reducing the number of trials and the need for witnesses to testify at multiple hearings.

The statute formerly said the court ``may'' join ``persons charged with participating in contemporaneous and related acts'' so they can be tried together. The new statute says that the persons ``shall'' be joined, unless ``such joint trial would constitute prejudice to the defendant.''

Alberi said the legislature is attempting to make the state courts more like the federal system, where joint trials are the rule instead of the exception.

This is the second time that Alberi has tried to take advantage of the new statute in the Wheaton murder. On July 15 Alberi tried unsuccessfully to join Waters with the third co-defendant, Richard Ethan Hollingsworth.

Circuit Judge Jerome B. Friedman denied that motion when evidence in the Hollingsworth case was ruled inadmissible against Waters. Hollingsworth is scheduled to go to trial on Aug. 5.

Waters' attorney, Arthur C. Ermlich Jr., said Wednesday's ruling would hurt his client's case, making it ``ripe for appeal.''

``I believe it is extremely prejudicial to my client,'' Ermlich said. ``He is now required to try a case with someone who is trying to shift blame from herself to my client.''

Wheaton, a 17-year-old soccer star and a junior at Kellam, was gunned down in the Landstown Lakes section of Virginia Beach just after 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25.

Witnesses said a car with several people in it pulled up to Wheaton and a man leaned out and opened fire with a small-caliber handgun.

The next day, police in Long Beach, N.C. near the South Carolina border, arrested four Virginia Beach teenagers: Waters of the 1700 block of Lord Tennyson Arch; Hollingsworth of the 1800 block of Blaimore Arch; Oliver of 829 Steeplechase Court; and another 17-year-old girl, Stephanie Grace Wall of 3066 Blitz Court.

All four were initially charged with first-degree murder, but prosecutors changed the charges against Wall to accessory after the fact, a misdemeanor, because Wall was not in the getaway car when Wheaton was killed.

Charges of attempted malicious wounding and conspiracy to commit malicious wounding were added against Wall stemming from another shooting a few hours before Wheaton was killed.

She pleaded guilty to those charges, and found guilty by a juvenile court judge of accessory after the fact. Wall was placed in juvenile detention for an indeterminate period of time.

Both shootings were cases of mistaken identity that stemmed from gang- related disputes involving Wall, Hollingsworth and Waters, according to statements given to police and court testimony.

According to testimony during Wall's trial in juvenile court, Wall had conversations with her three co-defendants shortly before the Jan. 25 shootings. While Wall worked at a local pizzeria, Oliver, Waters and Hollingsworth drove to Magic Hollow looking for the person who had been bothering Wall and Hollingsworth.

The trio stopped their Dodge Shadow, according to two witnesses who testified at Wall's trial. Someone in the car took aim at some people on the street with a handgun and fired one shot.

The three then left and returned to the pizzeria where they told Wall that they had ``fixed'' her problem, according to court testimony.

They then left on another mission, this time to avenge Waters' friend, who had been hospitalized after a beating by a gang member.

While cruising in Landstown Lakes, the trio reportedly failed to find the person who administered the beating and instead happened upon Wheaton and two friends walking along the street. Within moments, the car had stopped, and Wheaton was confronted and shot.

Wheaton had no connection to any of the events leading up to his death.

Later that evening the trio picked up Wall and a friend and drove to Long Beach, N.C., where Hollingsworth's grandfather has a cottage. They were arrested the next day. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Timothy M. Wheaton, a 17-year-old junior at Kellam High School, was

slain about 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25. KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING ARREST

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu